Police in London, Ont. say they have charged a teen from Toronto in connection with the murder of a young woman back in September.
The victim in the case, 30-year-old Lynda Marques, was ambushed and fatally shot as she returned to her home on Wateroak Drive in North London at around 7:55 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2021.
Investigators previously said that three suspects arrived at the home minutes earlier in a black 2016 Volkswagen Jetta. Two suspects exited the vehicle and each fired multiple shots into Marques’ vehicle as it sat in the driveway and then got back in the car and fled the scene, police said. The entire incident was captured on surveillance cameras.
After the shooting emergency crews rushed Marques to hospital, where she died of her injuries.
Police would not say if anyone else was in the vehicle or at home when Marques was shot and they have not described a possible motive so far.
Friends previously told CTV London that Marques was kind and smart, that she worked as a nurse and had recently opened her own botox clinic.
Speaking with reporters at a news conference Wednesday, Acting Detective Inspector Alex Krygsman said police are “looking at all the possibilities.”
“Why this happened to Lynda forms a central part of our investigation,” Krygsman said.
The suspect vehicle was found abandoned in London on Sept. 15. Police said they determined that it had been stolen from Bluffers Park in Scarborough on Sept. 5, five days before the murder.
Investigators previously said that they believe the suspects are from the GTA and that they travelled to London on Sept. 9 and left immediately after Marques was murdered. They also released images of two suspects and the suspect vehicle and appealed for any further information.
London police said Wednesday that 18-year-old Ammar Patel has now been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing.
Patel was arrested in Toronto on Nov. 17 on unrelated drug and weapon charges as part of “Project Malibu,” a Toronto police investigation targeting narcotics and weapons trafficking in Thorncliffe Park, Toronto police confirmed to CP24.com. He has been held in custody since and is set to make a court appearance in London today.
Krygsman said the investigation remains ongoing and police continue to appeal to the public for additional information in the case as they pursue “several” more individuals who they believe were involved.
“We're aware that the people involved in Lynda's murder travelled to London from the Toronto area on September 9 and left the city immediately after Lynda's murder,” he said. “So again, although there's a passage of time, I would ask that people just continue to cast their minds back and if they have any information, even if they think it's insignificant or won't matter, we would love to hear from them.”
On April 21, police released an image of a person who they believe has information about the murder and said they are asking for the public’s help in identifying him. Investigators said Wednesday that they have since identified the person in the image, but have not been able to speak with him so far.
